Molded products the surfaces of which are provided with decorations such as a wood-grain tone, a metallic tone (metallic luster), etc. are utilized for automotive interior products, household electrical appliances, OA instruments, or the like. A lot of these molded products have a complicated three-dimensional shape, and methods for simply applying a decoration with high design properties to such a molded product having a complicated shape have been conventionally investigated.
As for such a decoration method, there is known a hydraulic transfer method utilizing a hydraulic pressure. According to this hydraulic transfer method, a transfer film in which a desired decorative layer is printed on a water-soluble film having water-solubility or water-swelling property is prepared, and an activator composition composed of an organic solvent is coated on the decorative layer of the transfer film, thereby swelling the decorative layer and making it sticky (this is named “activation”). Before or after that, the above-described transfer film is floated on the water surface such that the surface of the decorative layer for transfer (printed layer) faces upward; subsequently, an article working as a transfer object is pressed on the transfer film; the transfer film is brought into intimate contact with the surface to be transferred of the transfer object, to which decoration processing is to be applied, by a hydraulic pressure; and thereafter, the water-soluble film is removed, so that the decorative layer is transferred (see, for example, PTLs 1 and 2).
While such a hydraulic transfer method is an excellent curved surface decoration method from the standpoints that “depth” such as a sense of clear coating, etc. or adaptability to the three-dimensional surface and pattern expression with high quality can be achieved, and the like, a method in which a three-dimensional feeling is further added thereto, thereby imparting a more excellent sense of high quality is demanded. Meanwhile, PTL 3 discloses a method for imparting a three-dimensional feeling by providing a hydraulic transfer sheet with protrusions made from a filling ink. However, according to this method, though a three-dimensional feeling is obtained, there was involved such a problem that surface smoothness or gloss is sacrificed, so that it is difficult to express a delicate appearance design, and the manufacture cannot be achieved by using an existent apparatus.